Driver hits liquor store, charged with DUI

Published 1:59 pm, Tuesday, May 20, 2014

George F.Kelly, of Fairfield, was arrested for driving under the influence Monday night after he hit the corner of a liquor store and left the scene.

George F.Kelly, of Fairfield, was arrested for driving under the influence Monday night after he hit the corner of a liquor store and left the scene.

Photo: Contributed Photo

Driver hits liquor store, charged with DUI

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A man who struck the corner of the building at 143 Tunxis Hill Road and then fled the scene Monday night was drunk, according to police.

George Kelly, 58, was taken into custody when he arrived at his former wife's Euclid Avenue in violation of a standing criminal protective order, police said.

Kelly, who told police he also lives on Euclid Avenue, was charged with driving under the influence, evading responsibility, reckless operation and violation of the protective order. He was held on bonds totaling $12,500.

According to the report, police received two phone calls about Kelly, one from a motorist who said he saw a blue pickup truck driving recklessly and then pulled into the parking lot of the Tunxis Hill Package Store. When Kelly left the package store, he drove over the corner of the sidewalk and struck the corner of the building. The store owner also called police about Kelly.

Officers waiting at the Euclid Avenue house said they saw Kelly driving recklessly and at a high rate of speed in the middle of the street, and that he nearly struck two children playing in the street. At the home, according to the report, he steered wide of the driveway and drove over the curb and onto the grass.

Kelly apparently had been at the ex-wife's house earlier and took her pickup truck without her knowledge, police said. Under the protective order, Kelly is to have no contact with his ex-wife.

He failed field sobriety tests, police said. Inside the truck was an unopened bottle of vodka, police said, and Kelly told officers that he consumed a half pint of vodka before his arrest.

Kelly has a history with Fairfield police, including earlier arrests for violation of probation, disorderly conduct, violations of the protective order, interfering with an emergency call, sixth-degree larceny, second-degree threatening and interfering with a police officer. He was sentenced to 45 days in prison for the shoplifting in 2011 and 45 days for a 2011 disorderly conduct arrest.

For the interfering with an emergency call in 2009, Kelly was sentenced to one year, suspended, but with two years probation. For two instances of violating a protective order in December 2012, he was sentenced to five years, suspended, and given two years probation. Kelly was sentenced to one year, suspended, plus two years probation for the threatening arrest in 2008.